Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where an application service provider (ASP) hosts software applications and associated data on the cloud. Multiple instances of a software application can be stored on the cloud where each application instance has functionality that is tailored for a particular tenant (i.e., customer) or a particular group of users that belong to the tenant. This results in some application instances having different functionality than others. The application instances can be stored on one or more data centers (i.e., servers) in the cloud. In a multi-tenant environment, a particular data center can store one or more application instances for multiple tenants.
To gain access to an application instance on a mobile computing device, a user needs to go through an activation process with the application instance in order to gain authorization. The activation process can include security checks with the application instance or the data center. Once authorization is granted, the user can access the application instance by using a thin client such as a web browser on the mobile computing device. When the user has finished using the application instance, the user deactivates the application instance from the mobile computing device, thereby leaving the mobile computing device ready to handle the next user's request.
Due to security considerations, a user must go through the activation process each time that the user wishes to use the application. Different users can connect to different data centers and thus the security checks can vary as each user attempts to active a mobile computing device. This activation process can be very time consuming. Moreover in an enterprise environment where data security is important, the activation process can be particularly complex. Thus, there is a need for improved techniques to access applications in a SaaS model.